The election of Tunisian Professor Nader Al-Masmoudi to the American Academy of Sciences and Arts

Tunisian mathematician Nader Al-Masmoudi was recently elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year in recognition of the importance of his contributions over the past years in crystallizing mathematical solutions to many physical problems that have remained unresolved for centuries.

Who is Nader Al Masmoudi?

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Professor Nader al-Masmoudi was born in 1974 in the city of Sfax, south of Tunisia, and demonstrated his genius in mathematics during his high school which enabled him to participate in the International Mathematics Olympiad in 1992, in which he won the gold medal, to be the first Arab and African to win this coronation.

Regarding the evidence of his genius in the field of mathematics, Dr. Hatem Zaak, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research and professor of mathematics at the Sorbonne University, north of Paris, and Rafik Nader from the middle school years, said in a special statement to Al-Jazeera Net on social media, “Masmoudi won the first Arab gold medal In the International Mathematics Olympiad it was an important sign of his genius in mathematics. “

He added that the philosophy of these international competitions “is based on the two most important aspects on which scientific research depends, in which Al-Masmoudi later excelled, namely, asking appropriate questions and addressing new issues in innovative ways.”

After obtaining his baccalaureate (high school) in mathematics in Tunisia, Al-Masmoudi joined the Nomination High School in Paris, one of the largest and most prestigious university institutions in France, after he won first place in the debate to join this prestigious university institution, and graduated in 1996.

The young Tunisian received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Paris-Dauphine in 1999, and his thesis was entitled “Asymptotic problems in fluid mechanics”.

Al-Masmoudi joined New York University the following year as a stable researcher, and since 2008 he has held the position of Professor of Practical Mathematical Analysis, Engineering and Complex Numbers at the University’s Curran Institute for Mathematical Sciences in New York.

Research and awards

Nader Al-Masmoudi is considered a prolific researcher, whose number of scientific papers is approximately 350 scientific papers published in major scientific journals specialized in the field of mathematics.

“His passion for research may sometimes lead him to take a paper and a pen to deal with a mathematical issue that came to his mind while eating,” says Dr. Hatem Zaq.

Al-Masmoudi won the award for best scientific paper published in the journal Annales Henri Poincaré in 2011, and then a grant from the National Science Foundation of America in 2012. Advertising

In 2017 Al-Masmoudi won one of the most prominent scientific prizes in mathematics, the “Ferma Prize for Research in Mathematics”, in recognition of his numerous, distinguished work in depth and creativity in the analysis of partial nonlinear differential equations, and for his contributions to reaching an accurate and comprehensive solution to the hydrodynamic stability problems raised by the founding fathers at the end of the 19th century. For modern fluid mechanics, according to the award committee.

The Ferma Prize for Research in Mathematics was established in 1989, and bears the name of the 17th-century French mathematician Pierre de Ferma, who is credited with establishing modern number theory and calculating probabilities independently of Pascal, as well as discovering analytical geometry.

The Tunisian scientist also won the “Kuwait Prize” in 2019 presented by the “Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences” in the field of basic sciences, in recognition of his pioneering efforts and role in the field of analysis of partial differential equations and their applications in the field of physics and mechanics.

Equations have been waiting for a solution for centuries

Understanding the behavior of the oceans, the atmosphere, and the flow of air around planes or cars requires the solution of equations developed by two physicists at the beginning of the 19th century known as the “Navier-Stokes equations.” Although more than two centuries have passed, mathematicians have not been able to develop a basic theory related to solving these equations.

According to Dr. Hatem Zaq, Nader Al Masmoudi, since his long stay in Paris, studied instability and instability in fluid motion as described by the Navier-Stokes equations, and later worked at New York University on developing the work of Russian physicist Lev Landau in the field of fluid statistics and solving these equations.

This work, which included the development of hydrostatic equations, was appreciated by leading scientists, such as Cedric Villani, who won the 2010 Fields Medal, and Siddiq Al Masmoudi.

It is noteworthy that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest international scientific institutions, established in 1780, and the number of its elected members reached more than 5,700 members, among them more than 250 holders of the Nobel Prize.